Immigration: Overseas Students

Baroness Garden of Frognal Excerpts

Thursday 17th November 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Garden of Frognal (LD)]

My Lords, I add my thanks to the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, for securing this debate and achieving a greater level of consensus among the speakers than is often the case in this House. Before gathering together some thoughts and issues which will almost certainly repeat the contributions of others, I, too, welcome the noble Baroness, Lady Chakrabarti, and congratulate her on her maiden speech. We were expecting an insightful and powerful speech, and that was what we got. We were not disappointed, and we look forward very much to her future contributions to our debates.

As we have heard, our world-renowned universities and colleges are facing considerable challenges from Brexit, with all the uncertainties over EU funding, research and collaboration. If it was important before the referendum for the UK to be open and welcoming, it is even more critical now that we should be taking every possible measure to ensure that we can still attract international students. Yet, as we have heard from all sides, the Government insist on counting them as immigrants, while at the same time declaring that immigration must be reduced to meet a target that has little regard to the needs of the country.

Reference has been made to the recent polling carried out by Universities UK which found that the majority of people do not see international students as immigrants. They appreciate that students are here only temporarily and bring enormous benefits both economically and in terms of international relations. They add to the UK’s influence and soft power, which was mentioned by the noble Baroness, Lady Royall, by the noble Lord, Lord McConnell, and by other noble Lords. It is worth noting that 55 current heads of state—representing more than 25% of all the world’s countries—benefited from an education in the UK. I like the idea suggested by the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, of a UK education database. Perhaps we might include those mentioned by right reverend Prelate—St Augustine could be in there. We could spread the field wider to see just how influential the UK may have been in days gone by.

Why can we not follow the example of more welcoming countries by designating students as temporary migrants or visitors, thus removing them from the stigma of being part of immigration totals? We have heard this from all sides, including from the noble Baroness, Lady Warwick, the noble Lord, Lord Trees, my noble friend Lord Shipley and the noble Duke, the Duke of Wellington—many noble Lords concentrated on this. Even the noble Lord, Lord Green, spoke some welcoming words about international students—although he also voiced some contrary views. The noble Lord, Lord Lexden, brought in the impact on independent schools, which should form part of the whole picture.

As the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, asked: what is the problem? The noble Lord, Lord McConnell, talked of the vandalism of the policy. There appears to be a fear somewhere that vast hordes of students will stay on illegally after their studies and cause havoc and unrest in society. But the recent unpublished report that has already been mentioned showed that only around 1,500 students do not leave each year, with no evidence of massive harm from those who do not leave.

It is never a bad thing to make policy decisions on the basis of evidence. So will the Government take steps to improve the reliability of exit checks, which could help to prove the case either way? It is not right that, currently, EU students considering study in the UK from 2018-19 have no certainty regarding their tuition fee status and access to student finance. Can the Government give any indication on when clarification on this point will be forthcoming? This certainly contributes to the decreasing attraction for EU students to study here—yet their presence, as we have heard, has great cultural value for UK students, who learn more about the world and establish friendships and networks which help secure good relations, which are in too short supply in our fractious world.

If the position is difficult within universities—which have been the main focus of most contributions—there are additional issues for colleges, which attract a wide range of students studying different courses from a range of a backgrounds. Existing Home Office regulations do not always align and serve them well. I am glad that colleges were included in this debate, even though universities have been the main focus. Do the Government take account of the important role that colleges play in educating international students? Currently, around 50,000 international and EU students are studying in further education colleges—a small percentage, but they provide an important financial, educational and cultural contribution. Colleges offer a valued progression route, with work-based qualifications which contribute to UK exports and help the sector widen the horizons of its students.

Following changes to the system in July 2015, college students are currently prevented from extending their leave in the UK for any reason. This makes it impossible for the thousands of students studying sub-degree programmes to progress on to higher education, thus making our provision less attractive to ambitious international students.

We heard from many noble Lords, my noble friend Lady Smith among them, about the complexity of the visa system. The choice of the UK as a destination of study for university students has been further undermined by changes to the post-study work route. Tier 4 visas provided opportunities for graduates to work in the UK for two years after they had completed their courses, but that is now reduced to four months. The reduction in post-study work opportunities has had a particularly disastrous impact on some markets, such as India.

The operation of the tier 4 regulations, changes to tier 2, suggestions that there will be even more onerous regulation and government rhetoric about international students have been noticed and reported on around the world. Alarmingly—but perhaps unsurprisingly—the number of Indian students studying at UK universities has fallen by 53% since 2010-11. I note that the noble Lord, Lord Bilimoria, was with the Prime Minister on her recent visit to India. Would that she had listened to him and taken the opportunity to reassure such an important country that its students would be welcome here by announcing changes that would have cost her nothing but provided a significant boost to our universities and colleges.

I feel that I ought to throw a few figures in the debate, as others have. Independent research has estimated that in 2011-12 non-EU students made a £7.3 billion contribution to UK GDP, rising to £9.1 billion when EU students are included, and supported 137,000 jobs across the UK, 170,000 when EU students are included. But the number of international students has been stagnant in recent years while competitor countries take advantage and see significant increases. That direct contribution of international students makes up an average of 20% of all universities’ revenue across England, and as such it is a crucial element of a university’s business operations. Having these sources of funding enables it to invest better in all its students and engage in research and innovation projects with its local community or with businesses.

As we have heard from the noble Lords, Lord Rees and Lord Trees, international students also enable programmes to be viable that would otherwise be lost through a shortage of UK students with appropriate skill or motivation. This is true in many of the STEM areas and in postgraduate studies. Universities fear losing essential revenue, but so too do they fear losing opportunities for learning and scholarship in areas where international students are key to numbers and continuity.

There are considerable off-campus benefits to the community, too, including the benefits to UK students of becoming familiar with different countries and cultures, as we heard from the noble Baroness, Lady Warwick, and the noble Lord, Lord Trees. The noble Lord, Lord Lipsey, spoke of his musicians and the fact that they bring talent to our country. The noble Lord, Lord Judd, spoke of the importance of medical schools and the international aspect to their studies. So how will the Government try to ensure global opportunities for UK students in future in order to guarantee that UK graduates have the international skills necessary to compete, which they can more readily acquire while working alongside overseas students, and in order to avoid the cultural chauvinism mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord Lipsey?

The Minister has heard overwhelming, if not absolutely unanimous, support in this House for a change of policy towards overseas students. I urge her to use her good offices with the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary to persuade them to take one very simple step: to remove students from the immigration figures. It would be a small step but one that would have major repercussions among those students we want and need to attract to our universities from countries where we need to do far more to show that the UK is still an open, welcoming and influential player on the world stage. I look forward to the Minister’s reply.